Cancer treatment is an arduous process on the mind and body of a patient, particularly those who are still in Childhood, Adolescence and Young Adulthood (CAYA). Standard chemotherapy affects both cancerous and healthy cells, producing a wide range of side effects, some of which can have lasting impacts on a patient’s life. Thus, targeted treatments that can more specifically affect cancer cells are desirable for both safer and more effective elimination of the tumour. However, the use of targeted therapies requires the tumour in question to be studied and tested extensively. As a result, many patients are given a standard chemotherapy regimen, whichcan result in multiple long, difficult rounds of non-specific chemotherapy, leading to significant side effects and may ultimately not be effective.

This current state demonstrates a tremendous need for personalized treatment options, to find a way to reliably determine what treatments will work best for each patient, while minimizing  potential side effects. This is where the Pediatric Preclinical Modelling Program intends to make a difference. Through this project, the Cancer Biology research theme aims to bring together many of Canada’s leading experts in the field to develop and use animal models to identify specific treatments that target the unique makeup of each patient’s tumour before administering it.

Objectives:

1. Develop and implement an efficient, multi-model preclinical pipeline that can rapidly evaluate personalized treatments, both standard and novel, for individual patients soon after diagnosis
2. Develop and compare multiple different cell-based and animal models (zebrafish, chick embryos and mouse) for a wide variety of CAYA cancers including solid tumours, hematological malignancies, as well as rare and high-risk tumours
3. Create a virtual annotated biobank of animal models for long-term research use
4. Increase access to personalized drug testing across Canada regardless of location, race or ethnicity

Overall, this project aims to make cancer treatment as effective as possible for some of our most vulnerable children and youth. Goals included improving survival and quality of life outcomes, as well as increasing access to these treatments across the country. Additionally, this program aims to expand and connect the current network of researchers and create new tools that will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of future preclinical cancer research.

For more information, please contact Tricia Schneider.